


sprinkle zamphour. add an olive

by gwmclintock88



Series: Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster - Skimmons Week 2015 [7]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Beginning a new relationship, Day 7 prompt, Dying relationships, F/F, Future, Skimmons Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-04
Updated: 2015-10-04
Packaged: 2018-04-24 17:35:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4928863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwmclintock88/pseuds/gwmclintock88
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fitz and Jemma were together, but some nights, it's Daisy who comforts Jemma when sleep won't come. It's Daisy who is there waiting in the lounge to offer her support. And tonight, it's Daisy who hears how Fitzsimmons may be breaking in two.</p>
<p>- or - </p>
<p>So let the future come. She loved Jemma Simmons, and that was her truth. That was her eventually happening. </p>
<p>(Skimmons Week - Day 7 Prompt: Future)</p>
            </blockquote>





	sprinkle zamphour. add an olive

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I know I tagged Leo/Jemma, but if we're dealing about a plausible future, then we need to deal with that relationship. This fic attempts to do so and I hope I deal with it in a believable way.
> 
> I have one more story to write. One more in me for the week. I'm not sure where it's going to take me, but I'll have it up tomorrow by Pacific Coast time.

            Daisy sat in the lounge area, sipping on a cup of mediocre coffee well past midnight. She’d had the same routine for months now. It made her a little groggy at first, but after a while, she adjusted to it. Most of the time, if it was late enough already she never bothered to sit out here. Everyone collapsed into their bunks or with their partners and nothing else could be said. But sometimes, on the days when it was comparatively easy day and the demands allowed everyone to get to sleep at a respectable hour, she found herself sitting out here. Waiting

            It started as a fluke. She came out after tossing and turning for nearly an hour before giving up and heading to the lounge. Mac’s gaming system provided an ample distraction from the thoughts racing through her, but someone was already there.

            Jemma sat on the couch, her legs drawn up to her chest, hugging herself and rocking a little back and forth. When she called her name, Jemma jumped, dropping her legs back to the floor. Wide-eyed and hands clenched in fists, she turned to find Daisy standing nearby. They talked a little, but never about what made the scientist want to spend hours awake in the lounge rather than in her bed, and later in Fitz’s bed.

            “Oh,” Jemma’s voice pulled her from her thoughts.

            “Evening,” Daisy said, holding out another cup of mediocre coffee to her friend. Jemma took it, slipping down beside her. “Another bad night?”

            “Yes,” Jemma breathed out, just holding the cup. She would talk, eventually, sometimes, but most of the time Daisy let her sit in a comfortable silence. Questions everyone wanted to know danced on the tip of her tongue, but she held back for Jemma. No one liked inquisitions and that’s all it seemed Jemma had been going through since her return.

            More tests, more questions, more problems. Everything seemed to be more, and it all unsettled her. Daisy noticed, but Bobbi first mentioned to Coulson. There was a silent agreement to not push her unless she started to hurt herself or others.

            But the only reason someone stays up so late when they work so long is they can’t sleep. Could be for a number of reasons, and most of the time, it was just people thought about things too much. Daisy did minimal research, dropping it after realizing none of the reasons why mattered.

            “Do…did Fitz tell you his plans?” Jemma asked. Daisy tried not to let her body stiffen at the question.

            She loved her friends. They were her family and nothing could change how she looked at them. But outside looking in, Daisy saw the troubles sometimes better than anyone else. Maybe it had something to do with growing up in orphanages and having to learn to read people quickly. Yes, she trusted quickly, but she rarely returned that trust.

            So she saw the dance between Fitz and Jemma. She knew the emotions Fitz wore on his sleeve and emoted so easily for his best friend. It pushed him to find a way to return Jemma to them. And his succeeded. And for a while, Daisy saw Jemma return those emotions, the love in her eyes and on her lips as she shared a kiss with him. After that, she stopped looking because she didn’t like the way her thoughts traveled. Fitzsimmons was her friend, and she needed to be happy for them. If she couldn’t, she needed to be silent.

            “No,” Daisy said. “What plans?”

            “He’s asked for some time off for us both,” Jemma said. “Wants to take a trip somewhere. Without all this.” She waved her hand at the room in front of her.

            “Sounds nice,” Daisy said.

            “It does,” Jemma said, staring at the cup of the coffee. Daisy took a sip from hers, letting Jemma speak first. Instead, she leaned into Daisy’s side, nestling closer to her and trying to burrow under her arm.

            “Comfy?” Daisy asked with a smile. Jemma nodded, closing her eyes as she rested against her.

            Daisy tried to ignore the warmth spreading through her body, or how Jemma hugged her arm to her chest. She ignored the way her body grew excited at the touch, a touch she reframed from taking advantage of. Her friendship with Jemma and Jemma’s relationship with Fitz (and hers with Fitz) were too important to screw this up by stepping where she wasn’t wanted.

            “I don’t want to go,” Jemma whispered.  Daisy froze, her heart thumping in her chest. This wasn’t how the nights were supposed to go. She was a rock for Jemma, there to let her find herself again before they slunk back off to their respective beds, hers empty and Jemma’s with Fitz. Talking happened sometimes, but rarely about feelings or wants. That was dangerous territory.

            “Go where?” Jemma didn’t respond to the question. She leaned further into Daisy’s side, pushing her nose against her arm.

            “Back there,” Jemma whispered. Daisy lifted her arm, letting her get close. “Every time I close my eyes, I see the moons overhead. The grey sands, muddy ground. I feel it still between my fingers.”

            Daisy pulled her closer, laying a small kiss on her head. “You’re not. I won’t let you go.”

            “Promise?” Jemma murmured.

            “Of course,” Daisy said. She reached over to brush some of hair out of the sleepy scientists face.

            Her coffee grew cold as Jemma slept and Daisy stood watch. The hours shifted from night to dawn, but tired was the last thing she felt. Things made a little more sense, not much, but a little more. Jemma returned on the edge and never left it. Everything set her off, jumped at the slightest movement. Her eyes tracked everything in rooms, and there was always something close at hand to use as a weapon: A stick, a pencil, an ICER, and even a gun at one point.

That had been a particularly bad day, when Fitz woke her up after sleeping at her desk. She grabbed the handgun, waving it at everything as she staggered backward. Daisy walked in to her pointing the gun at Fitz, demanding he tell her the truth. What truth, she wasn’t sure, but together they talked her down. After that, Jemma spent time with a psychologist - not that it did a lot of good if this was her current state.

            “She okay?” Daisy looked up to see Fitz, standing in the doorway she walked through several hours ago.

            “Yeah,” Daisy whispered. She tried not to move or speak too loudly. Jemma muttered something but remained asleep. “I think.”

            “She hasn’t slept through the night in a few weeks,” Fitz said. His arms were wrapped around his chest, hugging himself as he walked into the room. He sat down in the chair next to the couch, watching them. “Thank you.”

            “No problem,” Daisy said.

            Fitz shook his head. “It is, and I can’t do anything about it.”

            “You’ve do a lot. You brought her back.”

            “Not completely,” Fitz said, looking away. “I…I think I understand why she left: She thought she just made it worse being around me.”

            “Did she?” Daisy asked. As nosy as she was, Daisy never pried into what happened back before the Terrigen mists overtook her life.

            “No,” Fitz said. He offered her a small, self-depreciating grin. “It was just easier to blame her. For both of us. I wasn’t…I’m not the man she worked with at the Academy. I’m not her partner anymore.”

            “You are,” Daisy said, arguing for a point that she really didn’t want to, but she saw how happy being together made them. “You guys are partners.”

            “We could have been. But things….time happened,” Fitz said with another shake of his head. “I can’t be – I’m not what she needs right now. Or at least…”

            “At least what?”

            Fitz looked away, letting out one long breath. “She doesn’t need the pressure of what’s failing between us right now.”

            Daisy felt her heart stop, and had Jemma not been lying next to her she would have stood from her seat. Except Jemma whimpered, making them both freeze. Daisy tried to calm her down, running a hand through her hair. Eventually, she settled back, but Daisy still felt tense.

            “You’ve been together, what? Three weeks?”

            “Yeah, and it’s enough to see while I love her, and she loves me, we’re not going to work.” Fitz’s shoulders slumped as sat there. “I wanted…I thought she and I would have forever. And then it was too late. It always was too late.”

            “Fitz.” Daisy didn’t know how she got to play go between for Fitzsimmons. She loved them both, admittedly Jemma a little bit more and little purer, but she loved them. “You can’t give up when things get hard.”

            “I’m not giving up,” he said, smiling through shining eyes. “I’m letting her go. Who knows, maybe she’ll come back to me. That’s how it goes, right? You love something, you set it free.”

            “I think you’re supposed to love someone enough to let them go, even if it hurts you.” Daisy thought of the first time she walked in on Fitz and Jemma kissing, the first time she realized she missed her own chance. “You just…hold out they’ll not need to leave.”

            “I think she does.” Fitz rubbed his thumb under his eyes.

Okay, maybe changing the topic might help. “She said you asked for some time off?” Maybe he was planning a vacation or something to help her.

            “Yeah, and I think it set this off,” he said, waving at her. “I should have talked to her first, but it was a surprise, or supposed to be.” Daisy bit her lip, trying not to comment. It was sweet and stupid at the same time, but it was so Fitz that she understood. And she knew Jemma did too. Except this only reinforced the point Fitz was making, so good job Daisy in comforting your friend. “I think it just made things worse.”

            “You don’t know that,” Daisy said.

            “No, but I know it didn’t help. And that’s enough for me to know we need to talk about this.” Fitz pushed up, finally standing. He rubbed his thumb under his eyes again. “Oh, God, it is too early for this.” He shook his head, a sad smile still on his lips as he stared down at them. “Tell her to come find me when she wakes up?”

            “After she eats,” Daisy said.

            “Yeah, she hasn’t been doing that too well either,” Fitz said. “I’m glad someone else noticed.” Left unsaid was how Daisy managed to get her to eat. There was a lot left unsaid between them. “I’m going to head down to the garage. If I’m not there, then -”

            “You’re at the lab, got it.” Daisy tried to return his smile as he left. She turned back to the still form resting against her. “I wish things weren’t this complicated.”

            “No you don’t,” Jemma muttered against her. She reached out, grabbing the hand running through her hair and entwined their fingers.

The warmth that finally settled to a manageable level sparked inside Daisy again. She tried not think about it, tried not to have dirty thoughts of how to take care of that spark because Jemma was still with Fitz. If only technically, and it sounded like the relationship was on its death knell anyway, but it still didn’t make those thoughts okay. Or safe to have at the moment.

“How much did you hear?” Daisy asked, trying not to let her voice tremble or break.

            “Hear what?” Jemma blinked several times before focusing completely on her. Her smile was warm, her eyes still clouded in sleep.

            “Nothing. You can still catch another hour if you want,” Daisy offered. Jemma’s response was to nuzzle her side again, pulling the arm around her closer.

            “Everything’s complicated, the past, the present, the future,” Jemma said as she settled back down. “Just have to deal with it and move on.”

            “If things don’t work out?” Daisy asked.

            “Everything happens eventually,” Jemma said before yawning. “Just when you think it won’t, it will. And just when you think it will, it won’t.”

            “Best let it be, huh?” Daisy kissed her head again. “Sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

            “I know you will.” Jemma let go of her hand in favor of wrapping her in a hug as she slept. “That’s why I keep coming back.”

            Daisy wanted to know what that meant. She wanted to ask every question she had, like what happened with Fitz, how was she coping, what happened next. All these questions plagued her, but all she knew was right now, Jemma was getting some sleep, and she did that. It may not be the love she wanted, but it was love she offered. Maybe she and Jemma could talk about this, if things didn’t work out with Fitz. Even if Fitz and Jemma worked things out, she could still offer her love to Jemma, and no one could take that from her.

            So let the future come. She loved Jemma Simmons, and that was her truth. That was her eventually happening.


End file.
